NORAD Tracks Santa Videos
Santa Cam and Related Videos for NORAD Tracks Santa The NORAD Tracks Santa website Videos webpage is updated, generally each hour, to show a Santa Cam video of a CGI-rendered Santa flying over major cities in the different time zones where it is midnight. The videos feature a voiceover, that is typically done by NORAD staff, explaining Santa's location with facts about Santa and the country and city which Santa has just visited. Celebrity voiceovers have also been done over the years. For the London Santa Cam video, British celebrity and television presenter Jonathan Ross did the voiceover for 2005 thru 2007 and the former Beatle star Ringo Starr was an honorary Santa Tracker and voiceover for London in 2003 and 2004. Paul Harvey was also an honorary Santa Tracker and did the voiceover for the St. Louis, Missouri Santa Cam in 2003. In 2002, Aaron Carter was an honorary Santa Tracker and provided voice updates about Santa's whereabouts as he helped NORAD track Santa's progress on Christmas Eve in 2002. The Santa Cam locations announced by Aaron Carter for the 2002 NORAD Tracks Santa season were: 1) Auckland, New Zealand, 2) Athens,Greece, and 3) Colorado Springs. The locations of some of the Santa Cam videos have changed over the years. In 2009, a record 28 Santa Cam videos were posted at the NORAD Tracks Santa website's Videos webpage. In other years, generally 24 to 25 Santa Cam videos were posted at the NORAD Tracks Santa website's Videos webpage. Under each year is a table of locations of the Santa Cam videos posted for that year at the NORAD Tracks Santa website's Videos webpage with links to the Santa Cam video clips (where available). Then each year has a comment on which Santa Cam video locations changed (additions, updates, and deletions) from the prior year. 2009 A record 28 Santa Cam videos were posted for 2009. New Santa Cam videos for 2009 were for: 1) the Pacific Ocean, 2) Perth, Australia, 3) Zurich, Switzerland, 4) Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and 5) Mexico City, Mexico. The Santa Cam video for Zurich, Switzerland replaced the 2008 Santa Cam video for Neuschwanstein, Germany by Neuschwanstein Castle. visited Peterson AFB, Colorado on December 16 - 17, 2009 for his December 17, 2009 NORAD pre-mission brief in preparation for Christmas Eve 2009.]] 2008 50th Anniversary of NORAD's involvement (from NORAD's founding on May 12, 1958) in supporting the NORAD Tracks Santa Program The 2007 Santa Cam video for Baghdad, Iraq was not used in 2008. 2007 Unique for 2007 was a Santa Cam video for Baghdad, Iraq. 2006 Many of the videos posted on the 2006 and 2007 NORAD Tracks Santa websites were the same ones (both in terms of visuals and voiceovers) as the ones posted on the NORAD Tracks Santa 2005 website. Previous years have used many of the same visuals, but different voiceovers. In 2006, the Santa Cam video for Machu Picchu in Peru replaced the 2005 Santa Cam video for Newfoundland, Canada. Also, in 2006, the International Space Station and the Egyptian Pyramids now have separate Santa Cam videos for the first time, and the 2005 Santa Cam video for the Persian Gulf was dropped. 2005 50th Anniversary of NORAD Tracks Santa New Santa Cam videos for 2005 were for: 1) Neuschwanstein, Germany by Neuschwanstein Castle which replaced the Santa Cam video for Athens, Greece, and 2) Cape Canaveral and Miami Beach in Florida, which replaced the Santa Cam video for New Brunswick and Eastern Canada. The 2005 NORAD Tracks Santa "Systems Are Go" video clips were part of a test conducted on November 27, 2005 which tracked Santa Claus (Mr. Kringle) from the North Pole to Hollywood, California for the annual Hollywood Christmas Parade. 2004 50th Season of NORAD Tracks Santa In 2004, 1) the Santa Cam video for New York (last seen when NORAD Tracked Santa in December 2001) replaced the Santa Cam video for Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and 2) the Santa Cam video for Rio de Janeiro, Brazil replaced the 2003 Santa Cam video for Machu Picchu in Peru. The Santa Cam video from 2003 for Washington, DC was dropped without a replacement. 2003 The new Santa Cam video for 2003 was for London which replaced the Santa Cam video for Stonehenge, England. In 2003, the Santa Cam video for Machu Picchu in Peru replaced the 2002 Santa Cam video for Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and 2) the Santa Cam video for Mid-Atlantic and passing Lajes do Pico in the Azores replaced the 2002 Santa Cam video for San Francisco, California. 2002 2001 1998 to 2000 Other places shown on Santa Cam by NORAD Tracks Santa during the years 1998 thru 2000 included: 1) the Three Pyramids and the Sphinx in Giza, outside Cairo, Egypt, 2) the ruins of the ancient Mayan civilization in Palenque, Mexico, 3) Santa flying by the Russian Wikipedia:space station, Mir over Australia, 4) the Washington Monument on the National Mall in the US Capitol, Washington, DC, 5) the O'Hare International Airport, Chicago, Illinois, and 6) the Wikipedia:Petronas Twin Towers, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 1999 In 1999, the Santa Cam locations for Santa's journey were: Because of possible upcoming Y2K (Year 2000) issues on Christmas Eve of 1999, and to ensure that children and the young at heart world-wide could monitor Santa Claus activity on Christmas Eve, which was one one of the largest waves of Santa Claus sightings in the 20th century, space.com and NORAD prepared a special CD-ROM in advance of Santa Claus' Christmas Eve journey. This CD-ROM featured high-resolution, audio-enhanced movies and telemetry data of his journey and included all the Santa Cam videos of his 1999 visits. Space.com distributed the CD-ROMs for a nominal shipping fee, after one ordered these CD-ROMs from its website. At this point, in the 21st century, these 1999 NORAD Tracks Santa season CD-ROMs are probably a collector's item. 1998 1965 References